Jane was born in London on April 3, 1934 to an engineer father and an author mother. Jane grew up in Bouren-mouth, England and lived there until the age of 20. Jane spent as much time outside as she could she would bring worms into the house to observe them, and sit in chicken coops to watch the hens lay. After getting a stuffed gorilla as a gift in her tween years, she decided she wanted to go to Africa and study the primates herself.
Jane Goodall has shown us that humans and chimps are very much alike through her research at the Gombe National Reserve in Tanzania. They use facial expressions that look human. Chimps greet one another with similar displays of affection as us, such as kissing. Babies stay with their mothers until adulthood. …show more content…
However, she became very discouraged after only a few weeks. The chimps would not let her close to them, and she hadn’t seen much of anything. She had never done research with animals, and was visibly unsure of herself. The chimpanzees were not cooperating either. Then came the break, one day a large male chimp came to the camp. He kept looking at her tent from a nearby tree. Suddenly, he began screaming. Jane soon realized the chimp was looking at a banana in the tent. From that day on, bananas were kept for any curious chimps. With time, Jane grew very close to the chimps at the reserve. They soon allowed her to follow them and greet her like she was a chimp. Once she had earned their trust, two large discoveries were made. The first discovery happened while she was watching a male chimp in a tree with something pink. Two smaller, chimps were nearby begging. On a closer look, the male was eating the pink object. After dropping the pinkish object, it turned out to be a baby bush pig. The chimp was eating meat. Chimpanzees had been thought of as primary herbivores, who sometimes ate worms and bugs. Chimpanzees had never before been seen eating meat. It was later discovered that they eat vegetables, insects, birds, and meat. She also discovered chimpanzees hunt other animals, both alone, in groups and with and without weapons. During her research, Jane observed the hunting process several …show more content…
These behaviors, passed from one generation to the next through observational learning, can be regarded as examples of chimp culture. Males will sometimes form coalitions with each other to support each other during conflicts with other groups. The males of a community regularly patrol their boundaries, and if they see rival Chimps they may attack with extreme brutality. In 1974, Dr. Jane observed a 4 year territory war between two groups of chimps that ended with one group killing all of the other chimps in the other group. This was the first recorded account of non-human primate warfare. This is rare however, due to a strict hierarchy system. Most disputes within a community can be solved by threats not violence. They use gestures and postures to indicate threat. These gestures are often combined with vocalizations. Infanticide also occurs within chimp communities. Male chimps sometimes kill infant chimpanzees, for a variety of reasons, but it is thought to promote the female to wean her offspring sooner and to ensure that the future offspring are